Sunday, February 28, 2016

Burlesque, For Me, Is Not About Sex

"Sex is more exciting on the screen and between the pages than between the sheets." - Andy Warhol

I talk aboutmy orientation—grey-asexual—a lot.That's because many people still don't know that asexuality, much less
grey-asexuality or greysexuality (I go with grey-a because I lean towards the ace
side of the spectrum), is an orientation and not just a mode of
reproduction.Furthermore, it gives me a
unique perspective on burlesque.

Recently
two articles have inspired me to revisit the subject of asexuality as it
relates to striptease.The first is The
Irresistible O's "Sexual Orientation and Burlesque: The Dirty Word",
which is about how burlesque is still not as open to queer performers as one
might think.We may be more accepting
than the mainstream, but the need for a queerlesque festival highlights the
fact that there's much more work to do.I had commented that I sometimes question whether I have a place when my
fellow performers emphasize the sexual aspect of burlesque.O encouraged me to share my view, and that's
what I have decided to do after I saw another article, "Burlesque Performer: You Are Not a Sex Worker" by Mary Cyn.When I tried to share why I agree with many
of her points, I noticed the connections with asexuality and thus this post was
born.

Now I
don't deny that burlesque is inherently sexual.Whenever I see discussions on burlesque, I see attraction get linked to
sex though.It's expected since that's
how it works for most people, but it's time to stop assuming that there doesn't
exist a small portion of population who do not experience sexual attraction.Sex can be broken down into scientific steps
without any positive or negative connotations.If I show you a video of two fruit flies engaged in courtship and
mating, you're not going to think about lust or desire because they're flies.Nevertheless, they're still having sex.

I approach
burlesque in the same way I would approach those fly courtship videos: with
careful analysis of the specific steps.This
has nothing to do with my scientific
background and everything with the
fact that I don't typically experience sexual attraction.It's easier to treat this aspect of human behavior
as a research topic because I don’t have much else to go on.

What I
present on stage is sexual in that it typically has something to do with sex—be
it the moves, tone, or politics.That's
it.In a way, I'm going through the
motions, but I have enough understanding of human behavior to know what the
audience will think I'm suggesting.Plus
there's other emotions and intentions being expressed in my performance.It becomes a game.I present an illusion and try to get the
audience to see through it into the many non-sexual emotions and concepts I've
layered into the routine.Burlesque, to
me, is about power.

I thought this was fitting.Artwork by Alice X. Zhang

This is
where I draw the distinction between me and a sex worker.Although sex workers can undoubtedly be
empowered by what they do, there is an exchange.At some point, it is up to the client to
determine what will happen.You can
argue that burlesque performances are partly influenced by producers and paying
audience members, but for those few minutes during which a dancer is on-stage,
they are in total control.It's like the
difference between giving a speech in front of a large crowd and having a
one-on-one conversation.You can be
great at presentations or acting and yet be socially awkward.The two situations call for different skills
that occasionally overlap.I have skills
and the willingness to do one (burlesque) but not the other (anything that
involves an exchange that is sexual), and so I don't consider myself a sex
worker at all.

If you're
still confused, then perhaps you can take comfort in knowing that I struggle to
understand the appeal of sex.It's not
that I don't like it or don't have hormonal urges, but when you don't have that
attraction driving you, there's not really a motivation to seek it.Then you start wondering why sex is everywhere
and on everyone's minds.Some people are
just wired differently from the majority of the population, but that's why it's
important to listen to their perspectives, as they can broaden your view of the
world.